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A Raspberry Pi-powered live train station sign

balena.io

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Re: A Raspberry Pi-powered live train station sign

#63

Post by dividuum »

guylepage3 wrote: post #60

It would be cool to use a Split-Flap Display. like this.. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=04el3LYiOaI

If you can live with a pure software version for the Pi, have a look at https://info-beamer.com/pkg/8474.

If easy to install using the OS we build and you can update it remotely through an API or of course on-device.

Re: A Raspberry Pi-powered live train station sign

#64

Post by a_t48 »

guptaneil wrote: post #9
supernova87a wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That would be really amusing. Those are called Solari boards, by the way, after the manufacturer (Solari di Udine). Maybe someone enterprising might (or has?) created a character flipping routine that mimics the search through the tiles and set it to the authentic sounds? The attempt by that company to create their own digital version is really bad. (search youtube for it)

Looks like https://www.vestaboard.com is that enterprising company. https://www.theverge.com/circuitbreaker/2018/1/11/16876582/v... I've never used it, but it does look interesting.

I don't think vestaboard ever ended up shipping. I was somewhat interested in getting one, but now I'm really glad I didn't put down a deposit. Original estimates were Dec 2018 ship date, now they say Summer 2020.

Re: A Raspberry Pi-powered live train station sign

#67

Post by mainlineman »

alexandros wrote: post #18

Hey folks, balena.io founder here, just chiming in to mention that Chris is one of our Hardware Hackers in Residence, and if you think that doing HW projects with all sorts of cool technologies and writing them up for the world is your dream job, we're hiring! https://balena.workable.com/j/27A101659C Happy to answer any balena (or train station sign) related questions, of course :)

I haven't used balena but I have worked with other IoT SAAS companies in the past. All these services seem rather expensive for what you get. Other than creating an easy way to push OS updates to field devices what would I get from your service?

Re: A Raspberry Pi-powered live train station sign

#68

Post by mpettitt »

jrockway wrote: post #61
sschueller wrote: post #8

Very cool but I find a pi is overkill for something like this. ESP8266 or ESP32 would work just as well.

Pi Zero Ws are $10, ESP32 dev boards are $12. Why pick the more expensive one AND spend more time writing the software?

The ESP32 boards I have were £6, including postage. Can't find a Pi Zero for less than double that when including postage costs.

They're designed for different things though - if you wanted a battery powered version that updated on a button press else slept, ESP, if you want live updates all the time, Pi is fine!

Re: A Raspberry Pi-powered live train station sign

#69

Post by duxup »

dmd wrote: post #65
duxup wrote: post #2

That is super cool. But admittedly when I saw the title i was hoping for a mini version of those massive flipboard signs. Those things are amazing.

Something like this? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kN_AWLraqNw Software: https://github.com/dmd/clack

Similar to what I was thinking.

Re: A Raspberry Pi-powered live train station sign

#70

Post by duxup »

harpastum wrote: post #56
duxup wrote: post #2

That is super cool. But admittedly when I saw the title i was hoping for a mini version of those massive flipboard signs. Those things are amazing.

There's a great Github project for building your own Splitflap/Solari displays from the ground up for $20 each https://github.com/scottbez1/splitflap

Oh man that is great thank you.
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